The invention concerns a cyclone separator for separating liquid and/or solid particles from a gas stream. The cyclone separator comprises a plurality of individual cyclones that, for separating the particles from the gas stream, each have a cell tube with a guide device wherein the guide device is designed to cause the gas stream to rotate. The cyclone separator further comprises a particle discharge for discharging the separated particles from the cyclone arrangement, wherein the particle discharge is arranged perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the cyclone separator. For a targeted discharge toward the particle discharge of the particles that have been separated by rotation, the cell tubes each have at least one particle outlet opening that is facing the particle discharge.
A cyclone separator embodied as a multi-cell cyclone that is serving as a pre-separator for an air filter is disclosed, for example, in the publications DE 10 2010 014 278 A1 and DE 10 2008 011 186 A1.
Moreover, an air filter with a pre-separator configured as a multi-cell cyclone is disclosed in the publication WO 2009/106591 A2. In this known air filter an outflow geometry of the pre-separator is matched to the inflow geometry of the filter element. This can be realized by an appropriate distribution of the individual cyclones along the circumference of the pre-separator but also by an appropriate orientation of the cyclone outlets. In this connection, the entire cyclones, or only their outlets, can be positioned at a slant.
These known cyclone separators have the problem that the separated particles of neighboring individual cyclones can meet each other and accumulate in the cyclone separator (or the cyclone block) instead of being discharged or let out through the particle discharge. This is in particular a problem in cyclone separators in which the particles are not additionally removed by suction. These particle accumulations in the cyclone separator can cause clogging of individual particle outlet openings and therefore diminish the pre-separation degree of the cyclone separator.